This week's White Island eruption event is a tragedy on so many levels, and as Jacinda Adern has said, we first need to attend to the people directly involved and their families and loved ones. My heart goes out to those who lost their lives and the many whose lives still hang in the balance, as well as those for whom the close call and rescue efforts will be a haunting memory likely to stir up a much deeper well of emotion for many years to come.

I hope once the clouds of ash and toxic gases have ceased their angry outbursts that NZ will leverage the experience in constructive ways such as opening more constructive conversations about the truth about the concept of RISK (the only time there is any genuine certainty is AFTER the event!) as well as digging more deeply into areas such as responsibility and accountability. Just like the concept of overlapping PCBUs, just about everything in life has a degree of overlapping responsibilities, and the only way to sensibly manage risk is for each individual to really understand and accept their individual scope of responsibilities. We also need to learn how to communicate responsibly within this context.

While there is nothing on earth that would stop a volcanic eruption, and it is true that tourists have been visiting the island for many years, that tour operators would stand to lose money if tours didn't run, the relevant government advisory agency provided status information that was not accompanied by advisory instructions (so may have been ambiguous or understated), and many tour operators relied heavily on signed disclaimer statements to cover responsibilities regarding risk, without necessarily engaging in meaningful risk management processes.

I hope that NZ will resist the urge to simply enact politically-pressured and expedient legislation that slides off surface issues and misses the opportunity to dig in a bit deeper, not only to understand the many factors and context of this very sad event, but also to dig deeply enough to understand underlying contributing factors such as values, economics and other perfectly normal human parameters that played a part in this.

Relevant article from Stuff:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/118085368/whakaariwhite-island-tour-operators-cant-waiver-their-way-out-of-safety-obligations?cid=app-android